<figure id="attachment_469559" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-469559" style="width: 5616px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="087dfb53"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/81be9d5bc31ef9296c41cc4b1e76a8f2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-469559" class="wp-caption-text">Trump said &#8220;climate change is made up.&#8221; Actually, he was right. &#8230;&#8230;?</figcaption></figure>
 It is still fresh in our minds that Donald Trump once said, &#8220;Global warming is a hoax,&#8221; and was heavily bashed. Now, however, a number of facts have emerged that make us wonder, &#8220;Wasn&#8217;t he actually right? However, a number of facts have emerged that make us wonder, &#8220;Wasn&#8217;t he actually right? 
 Large-scale wildfires have been occurring frequently around the world this year. Last year, Hawaii, Europe, and other areas suffered extensive damage. The news repeatedly blames global warming for these fires, but is this really true? 
 The truth is, there were more wildfires in the past than there are today. 
 The fact is, there were more wildfires in the past than there are today,&#8221; says Taishi Sugiyama, a senior researcher at the Canon Institute for Global Studies.
<h3> Wildfires were more common in the past! </h3>
 According to Sugiyama, there are two main types of wildfires: those that occur in arid regions such as Yellowstone in the U.S. and Australia, and &#8220;wildfires&#8221; for mountain management.
 In Britain, for example, there was forest all around the 1st century when the Roman army marched into the country. Trees were cut down to make grassland for livestock grazing, and wild fires were used to manage the grassland. 
 Also, in arid regions, wildfires were originally &#8220;part of the natural cycle. In Japan, trees bud in the spring and fall in the fall. In modern times, however, fires are extinguished as soon as they start, even if only a little. As a result, &#8220;fuel&#8221; such as dead grass and fallen trees remain in the mountains, and once a fire starts, it burns an unmanageable area. 
 In Japan, wildfires used to be practiced everywhere, but now they are rarely practiced, so it can be said that fuel is still accumulating in the mountains.
 So, aren&#8217;t wildfires emitting large amounts of CO2 and accelerating global warming?
 Sugiyama points out, &#8220;It is true that wildfires emit CO2, but if the total amount of CO2 emitted by human activities is 10, the amount of CO2 emitted by wildfires is less than 1.
<figure id="attachment_469560" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-469560" style="width: 5000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fe47a6ef"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/1826a56750ac103bb33324537e93df48.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-469560" class="wp-caption-text"> In Europe, the European Union&#8217;s Meteorological Information Agency and other organizations report that last year&#8217;s wildfires wiped out 13,445 square kilometers, an area equivalent to the size of Gifu Prefecture. Photo shows wildfire in the Fundão region of Portugal last August.</figcaption></figure>
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<h3> Is the theory that extreme heat = CO2 culprit mistaken? </h3>
 According to the World Meteorological Organization, CO2 concentration, which was 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution (before 1850), increased to 423.9ppm in &#8217;24. Could the fact that summer is getting harsher every year and that typhoons and guerrilla downpours are increasing be due to global warming caused by this increase in CO2?
 According to an estimate by Professor Emeritus Genuine Kondo of Tohoku University, the average temperature increase in Japan is &#8220;0.89°C per 100 years,&#8221; or a mere 0.3°C in 30 years, a level not even close to what we humans can feel.
 Even so, the reason we feel &#8220;hotter every year&#8221; is not because of the rise in average temperatures, but because of &#8220;urban heat (heat island effect),&#8221; he says.
 When the surroundings are hardened with concrete and asphalt, they heat up and the heat does not escape even at night,&#8221; he said. Originally, when rain soaks into the ground and evaporates, it lowers the temperature, but on asphalt roads, the water flows away into sewers and rivers. 
 Another factor is the decrease in the number of paddy fields. The surroundings of paddy fields feel cooler, but the reduction in the number of paddy fields causes the temperature to rise locally by about 1°C.&#8221;
 Furthermore, abnormal weather conditions such as rainfall and typhoons are also within the &#8220;natural cycle of change,&#8221; says Sugiyama.
 In the 1920s, there were years when rainfall was nearly 400 mm higher than today, and in the 1990s, there were years when rainfall was nearly 500 mm lower. 
 As for typhoons, super typhoons were not frequent until 1971.&#8217; Typhoon No. 14 in 2010 was powerful, but it was the first super typhoon in 30 years, since Typhoon No. 13 in 1993. It is not a &#8216;recent and frequent occurrence. 
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Is that really the case?"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_469562" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-469562" style="width: 4300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="42d41b62"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/69c653e0cf2cc70e917edd43c1c63a95.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-469562" class="wp-caption-text">Solar panels emit CO2 both when they are manufactured and when they are disposed of,&#8221; says Sugiyama. Photo: Yamakura Water Mega Solar Power Plant in Chiba, Japan</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Huge Waste of &#8220;Decarbonization Money </h3>
 Even if there is an anthropogenic influence on the recent temperature rise, it is at the extremely slow pace of &#8220;1°C per century.
 It would be a terrible mistake to spend huge sums of money just to reduce CO2 emissions when the scientific evidence that CO2 is the absolute source of climate change is so vague.&#8221;
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 Sugiyama also warns of the contradictions in the current worldwide shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
 For example, solar panels emit CO2 both when they are manufactured and when they are disposed of. Moreover, if we depend on renewable energy, the cost of energy will rise, putting pressure on the economy. We need to stop and think, &#8216;Is that really what we want? We need to stop and think about it.
 Every time I see a wildfire in the news, I want to shout &#8220;reduce CO2 emissions. But are CO2 reduction measures really benefiting the environment and our lives? We need to have a calm discussion and not be carried away by the boom.
Taishi Sugiyama is a senior research fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. He is a specialist on global warming issues and energy policy, and has served on the IPCC, the Industrial Structure Council, and the Energy Efficiency Standards Subcommittee. He is the author of many books, including &#8220;Dekarbonization&#8221; is Full of Lies (Sankei Shimbun Publications) and Data Telling the Truth and Lies of Climate Change Issues (Denki Shoin).
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 Izumi Nakagawa

 Afro

 Trump's claim that "global warming is a hoax" is correct! 　The real culprit behind the heat wave and wildfires is not CO2 but "urban heat. This report reveals the inconvenient truth about climate change, and warns against "decarbonization" policies that create huge amounts of waste!

Shocking: Is CO2 not the real culprit behind the heat wave? Wildfires were more common in the past” An Inconvenient Truth about Climate Change

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